New library to set sail with compass rose

Friday

Jan 13, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Osterville’s about to get a compass rose. And it will show that all roads lead to the library.

Ellen Chahey

ROBIN C. YOUNG PHOTO

SHOW ME A ROSE – Artist Lance Walker of Dennis won the opportunity to design an original piece for the new Osterville Village Library building on Wianno Avenue. The work will be showcased in a window that will be visible from the street.

Artist includes classic Osterville scenes

Osterville’s about to get a compass rose. And it will show that all roads lead to the library.

“This was one of the naming opportunities” for the new library building rising on the site of the old one that was a repurposed store with leaks in the roof, said Cyndy Shulman, one of the leaders of the fund drive.

The family that seized the naming privilege as a memorial to their mother, Janel Kisker Kesten, who died in 1967, is that of Laurie Young. She and her husband, who collect art, consulted with Cindy Nickerson, a former director of the Cahoon Museum in Cotuit, for the names of a few artists who might be able to paint, in a relatively short amount of time, a work that “would reflect Osterville,” said Young, who is sponsoring the piece along with her siblings, all but one of whom still live in the village. In addition to Young, Kesten’s children are Donna Greene, Robert Kesten, Jr., and John Kesten and her grandchildren are Janel, Ryan, and Samantha Kesten and Kelley Ervin.

According to an e-mail from Laurie Young, Kesten was “an avid reader and made sure all her children had library cards, first at Hyannis, then at Osterville when they moved into the village in 1965 to run the East Bay Lodge.”

Young said that from Nickerson’s suggestions, the library’s capital campaign committee narrowed the field to four candidates. (“The committee wanted a realistic, naturalistic style for such a visible landmark…”) She said that Walker was notified in November of his commission to produce the seven-by-five-foot mural (actually painted on canvas and framed, rather than directly on the wall). She said that the library hopes eventually to sell prints of the painting, which depicts the library in the center of several Osterville scenes, such as the Crosby boatyard, with a compass rose superimposed.

Young called Walker’s style “pretty much a naturalist – there’s not a lot of reds, whites, and blues, and his work is not primitive. No, this is not a Grandma Moses.”

One factor that earned Walker the commission, said Young, is his experience in large works. Some artists, she said, took themselves out of the running when they learned that they would have to produce a mural-sized work in the short time before the library opening that is planned for March.

“I am not a mural artist,” Walker said in a phone interview, “but I think big.” He said that he and his wife drove around Osterville – a place that they hadn’t known well but where he had painted en plein air before – just to get an idea of “how to depict a village.” Walker has exhibited at the Guyer Barn in Hyannis, the Cahoon Museum in Cotuit, and other Cape venues.

One connection he found right away, he said, was that “I’m a sailor. I know the water well.” And that’s how he got the idea to paint “not really a mural – but just a big compass rose” with some classic Osterville scenes surrounding the image of the new library, and charts of the village’s waters in the background.

Walker said that he added some personal touches to his work. “I painted myself into the village green on a summer afternoon,” he said. And for his depiction of fun at Dowse’s Beach, at the bottom of the painting, “I put in some little people so that when little people see it at the library, they relate.” He added, “I really want to see [the library] as a place to meet and read…with both Wi-Fi and books, this particular library will be cutting edge.”

He said that as he worked on the piece, “whether you’re spiritual or not, I was following my heart…there was something guiding me.”

According to Young, the library hopes to open the new building sometime in March, although the grand opening celebration will wait until June.

Meanwhile, she said, as the contractors finish the building and Walker paints the last strokes on the mural (even Young hadn’t seen the finished work when she was interviewed early this week), the trustees are looking for volunteers to help move books back from their temporary location a block away into their new home.

The Osterville Village Library’s phone number is 508-428-5757 and its website is ostervillefreelibrary.org